The fighting game community is largely comprised of a younger audience, and as such the actions and decisions of its members are not always necessarily for the best. Our players have made mistakes time and time again. Some of those mistakes were made by misguided individuals; others resulted from a breakdown in communication among a group of people. Since 2009, the spotlight that’s been cast on fighting games has brought numerous incidents (this being the most prominent one) to light that most likely would’ve gone unnoticed and unspoken of in the old days. Those days are gone now, and the community is at a crossroads where its longevity and relevance will be decided by the actions of its members.

My name is bellreisa, and I am a nobody in the fighting game community of 2013.

To many people, I am an important member of their individual niche of the overall community. Some consider me one of the figureheads of the American scene for Immaterial and Missing Power. Others have been following my performance in Melty Blood from the early days when the game was still a casual fan-made game on the PC. But to the majority, I am another nameless “anime fighting game player” out of hundreds across the country.

Today, we’re going to explore the fundamentals of combos in Melty Blood. Melty is a combo-heavy game where fully understanding a character requires knowing how their moveset works and forces the opponent into specific situations. Some characters are heavy on setups and mixups. Others deal raw damage with poor options afterwards. Many lie somewhere in between. When practicing combos, it’s important to have a full array of openers and closers so that you can adjust on the fly for the situation at hand.

Today’s article is going to go over the various levels of competency in gaming. Once again, the concepts discussed here apply to the majority of competitive games, but this article will primarily deal with the scope of fighting games.